Book a space. Let the payment find its way.

For a booking to work, responsibilities need to be clear. The supplier provides the parking space. Baymity brings the booking together. Stripe provides payment services. Money has to move with those responsibilities clearly assigned, alongside verification, consent and understandable terms. Enabling payments between other people also means accounting for legal requirements.

Those requirements shaped the decision to build Baymity as a marketplace using Stripe Connect. The parking payment is created on the supplier’s connected Stripe account, and Baymity receives its disclosed platform fee. Stripe handles the payment funds and bank payouts; Baymity does not collect the supplier’s parking proceeds into its own account. The resident helping with garage access has no parking payment to collect at the door.

In Germany, commercially accepting money in order to pass it on to someone else can constitute a regulated payment service. Section 1(1), sentence 2, no. 6 of the Payment Services Oversight Act (ZAG) covers money remittance; section 10(1) generally requires BaFin authorisation for payment institutions. As BaFin and the Bundesbank explain, the assessment depends on the payment flow and applicable exceptions. The relevant permission is a payment-services or e-money authorisation, not necessarily a full banking licence.

Stripe’s European entity, Stripe Technology Europe, Limited, is authorised by the Central Bank of Ireland as an electronic-money institution with payment services (C187865). Its register also records cross-border services in Germany. Baymity cannot simply undertake regulated collection and onward distribution without the necessary authorisation. That is why its current model leaves that funds handling with Stripe instead of first collecting guests’ money into a Baymity account and distributing it to suppliers later.

The supplier first completes Stripe’s hosted setup, providing the identity and bank information Stripe requires. These checks help meet payment-service requirements. Baymity checks that the account is ready before allowing new paid bookings.

When a guest books, Stripe securely saves a payment method for that booking. Saving it alone does not hold or charge the booking amount. Normally, about 24 hours before arrival, an authorization reserves the amount; about two hours before arrival, it is charged. A booking made within either window can reach that step immediately. If the bank asks for further confirmation, the guest needs to complete it.

Processing a payment involves more than passing a number from one screen to another. Stripe charges fees for its payment services. The actual charge can depend on the payment method and other circumstances; a single headline rate would not describe every booking fairly.

For bookings covered by Baymity’s reimbursement policy, Baymity pays back the supplier’s actual ordinary Stripe payment-processing cost. Stripe initially deducts it, then Baymity sends a separate credit from its own Stripe balance. This keeps the ordinary processing cost from becoming an extra deduction from the supplier’s agreed share after Baymity’s commission.

The reimbursement can arrive after the parking proceeds. While it is pending, it is shown separately and remains owed. It should not be mistaken for money already received in the bank. Stripe’s settlement and payout schedule, together with bank processing, determines when funds reach the supplier’s bank account.

The policy covers ordinary booking-processing fees. Optional instant payouts, currency conversion, dispute costs and supplier taxes are separate. Baymity’s own disclosed fees still apply, and older bookings retain their recorded policy. The details shown for the booking and in the current terms explain which amounts belong where.

Before capture, a cancellation can stop the payment attempt or release an authorization; the bank controls when any reserved amount becomes available again. After a charge, an approved refund follows the refund process through Stripe. The payment provider controls how long the return to the guest’s account takes.

There is a reason for making these distinctions visible. Saved payment details, reserved funds, a completed charge and a bank payout describe different moments. Knowing which one has happened helps both people understand their booking.

Stripe was new to me when I started integrating it. Working out how account checks, booking times, payments and fee credits should fit together became a technical challenge I enjoyed. The interesting part was making all those moving pieces support an ordinary, reassuring experience.

Behind that experience are checks for repeated notifications, interrupted requests and payment updates that arrive late. On the screen, the aim is much simpler: clear amounts, a status that means something, and the freedom to get on with the visit. That is the kind of work I want to put into Baymity.